Goodbye Christopher Robin (United Kingdom, 2017)

October 20, 2017A movie review by James Berardinelli

When reading the Winnie
the Pooh books as a child, I remember being amazed by the revelation that
Christopher Robin was a “real” boy. That caused me to wonder whether all the
animals were real, too. Goodbye
Christopher Robin tells the story of that “real” boy and the difficult
relationships he had with his taciturn father, his distant mother, and fame
itself. Although hewing close to the established facts, the movie amps up the sentimental content for maximum effect. Goodbye Christopher Robin, a “based-on-a-true-story” yarn directed
by Simon Curtis and written by Frank Cottrell Boyce and Simon Vaughn, has some
interesting things to say about someone thrust into the spotlight against their
will but the sometimes heavy-handed emotional manipulation limits the
production’s overall power and effectiveness.

Perhaps the only child in the world to despise A.A. Milne’s Winnie the Pooh stories was his young
son, Christopher Robin Milne (Will Tilston as a boy; Alex Lawther as a young
man), for whom they were written. Christopher, who went by the nickname of
“Billy Moon”, viewed the books as having taken something private and made it
available to the entire world. Furthermore, since he was known to be the
inspiration for the stories’ boy character, he was frequently forced to dress
the part for photo ops and publicity events (such as a tea party with contest
winners). He went along with all these things until his father belatedly
realized that Winnie the Pooh was a
trap not only for Billy but for the whole family. Nevertheless, Christopher
Robin haunted Billy into adolescence when he was bullied at school and he eventually
joined the army to fight in World War II in an attempt to escape his “legacy.”

Much of Goodbye
Christopher Robin follows traditional bio-pic rules. We see the strained
relationship between the affection-starved son and his father, famed author
Alan Milne (Domhnall Gleeson), who, as a result of psychological trauma caused
by World War I, is emotionally closed-off. The self-absorbed mother, Daphne
(Margot Robbie), is rarely present and, when she is, she’s more apt to do
damage than help. The nanny, Olive (Kelly Macdonald) becomes a surrogate mother
and father until she “betrays” the boy for a life of her own. Thematically, the
narrative gains traction when it focuses on the unintended consequences of Winnie the Pooh’s success. Daphne is
delighted, Alan accepts it all with a stiff upper lip, but the brunt of the
publicity avalanche falls on Billy, who is ill equipped to cope with it. “I had
a wonderful childhood,” he would later say. “But growing up was hard.” An
idyllic period in his life spent playing in the woods is followed by the horror
of becoming hunted by the paparazzi and his adoring “fans.”

Goodbye Christopher
Robin’s attempts to trace the development of Pooh and his band of friendly
animals is unevenly presented. One key theme – that of the way the
between-years era was fraught with trauma and angst for a generation that lost
so much in “The War to End Wars” – is broached but never fully explored. This
is unfortunate because Alan’s relationship with Billy is grounded in this. He
was damaged in World War I. He wrote to salve the wounds yet, in the end, that
writing drove his son to enlist as a way of escape. The movie hints at but
never fully captures the grimness of the 1930s as Hitler’s rise to power made
it apparent that “The War to End Wars” might not have been anything of the
kind.

For Domhnall Gleeson, who seems to be in every other movie
made these days, this is another fine performance for his resume. It’s not
flashy or showy; he captures the internal conflict experienced by Alan as he
balances his own issues with his growing awareness of the damage he’s
inflicting on his son. Margot Robbie plays Daphne as an out-of-touch,
narcissistic socialite who is contrasted with Kelly Macdonald’s caring nanny.
Will Tilston, making his feature debut portraying Billy at age 8, seems
overcoached. Technically, his acting is fine but at times it feels artificial.

There are some odd parallels between Professor Marston and the Wonder Women and Goodbye Christopher Robin. Both transpire at least in part during
the 1940s and chronicle the factors that resulted in the creation of pop icons
as well as the consequences of that work. The movies also offer elements of
social commentary – Professor Marston
about feminism and Christopher Robin about
the downside of fame. The differences in tone, however, make the former film
superior to the latter. Professor Marston
and the Wonder Women is lively and passionate where Goodbye Christopher Robin is formal and sentimental. The problem
with Goodbye Christopher Robin is
that, although it tells its story, there’s no sense of freshness or energy to
the approach. Winnie the Pooh is
timeless and unforgettable. The same qualities don’t apply to this tale of the
real-life people and circumstances that inspired his creation.